A web browser or browser interface is a software application which typically displays a graphical user interface. Popular Web browsers include Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer. Web browsers can be run on computers, internet appliances, mobile devices such as cellular phones, and other machines.
A browser on a computer system can connect to a server or other computer so that data on the server such as text, pictures, videos, or interactive multimedia can be viewed by a user. Web browsers can connect to websites on the Internet, a smaller local area network connected to the Internet, or a private network unconnected to the Internet.
A user of a browser typically refers to a human being who views and interacts with a predefined browser software application on a machine. The browser software application is typically compiled into machine-readable instructions. On some platforms, a user can open multiple “instances” of a browser and multitask with other applications besides the browser interface.
A web browser typically is displayed in a rectangular window on a display screen. The web browser can have buttons and other on-screen controls that a user can manipulate. Typical controls include functions to go back and forth through a history of visited web pages, stop loading or refresh a web page, or go to a home page. Other controls include a textbox for entering an Internet Protocol (IP) address or web address in which to browse or visit next.
Each web browser has a client area in which a web page is displayed. The client area is typically rectangular and takes up a majority of the web browser window. Web pages, commonly coded in HyperText Markup Language (HTML) and sometimes coded with scripting languages such as JavaScript or VBScript, can often display a wide variety of text, images, video, audio, and other multimedia, as well as form implements such as buttons, textboxes, and other elements.
A web browser window can sometimes be resized or moved by a user around a computer display screen, sometimes called a desktop or workspace. By resizing and/or moving a browser and other windows, a user can read, edit, and otherwise interact with several applications at once. When a user moves a browser window, a control, text, picture, or other object which is in the client area of the browser window moves with the window. When a user resizes a browser window, objects can stay put, rearrange, stretch, or resize themselves with the window. Elements are conventionally “confined” to the client area. That is, no portion of the object is displayed outside of the client area.
Web browsers are often used as interfaces for enterprise software because, among other advantages, browsers are widespread, are readily available on a wide range of computing devices, and users are often familiar with browser interfaces. Enterprise software is software that is directed toward one or more aspects of running a business or similar enterprise, such as administrating employee payroll, tracking assets, accounting, and managing vendors and merchants. Enterprise software for a major business can include several different software applications which access a variety of databases. Sometimes written using proprietary architectures, enterprise software can be hosted on servers which are geographically remote but connected to users through a network.
User interactivity of enterprise software applications, including ease of use and intuitiveness, has been a goal of some enterprise software application releases. For example, many application pages contain grids in some form or another. These grids can be placed into a main area of the page, a frame of the page, as part of a widget placed on the page, or in any other appropriate location in or relative to such a page. These grids can grow in length and/or width depending on the number and size of rows and/or columns of data they contain. When placed onto a web page, the length of the grid can cause the overall page length to increase. When the length of a page is larger than what can be displayed in the client area of a browser window, the browser often displays scrollbars, arrows, continuation prompts, or other scrolling controls so that a user may scroll down to see the rest of the grid on the page. These scrolling controls take up screen real estate, add clutter to the screen, and are sometimes unintuitive to beginning users.
A scrollbar can be placed within the grid itself so that the rest of the client area of the browser will not lose space to scrollbars. This allows rows to be added to the grid without affecting the overall page length. However, the above problems can still exist because space is still being used for scrollbars.
To show more information without adding to the footprint of a grid, some enterprise application web pages use the concept of a ‘tooltip,’ a small, read-only popup window that appears when a cursor hovers over an element. Other web pages use the concept of a small popup window to show static information related to the grid. These popup windows have been known to display thumbnail images or previews of pages that users will see if they click on the links, or provide some additional links or images.